In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology was brainstorming ways it could help the country's researchers and innovators.
Two project officers came up with the idea of allowing Ukrainian universities to hop on to innovation-related projects they were managing in the EIT Higher Education Initiative.
Just a few weeks later, 14 universities had joined 11 existing projects.
"We decided to integrate Ukrainians to leverage on the quality of those existing projects," says Dolores Volkert, head of the EIT HEI.
One project, called DISCO, supported Ukrainian start-ups which went on to receive the Poland Prize for Internationalization.
In another case, the Ukrainian partners on a climate-focused project, ILCA, were invited to a United Nations' event where they signed a climate recovery roadmap.
"It's about getting more expertise and knowledge on entrepreneurship, and also being more connected to partners outside of the country," says Volkert.
In the March 2023 call, 37 Ukrainian organizations applied across 21 proposed projects.
It was the country with most applications submitted.
The support in the projects is not specifically tailored for Ukrainian institutions, but if selected for funding, the participants are provided with expertise, teaching, training, and mentoring on building up
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